But use good narrative reasons, not punishments. If they rely on standard tactics and weapons, make sure those can't be used. Have they made plans? Have things change so those plans need to be quickly and radically revised - and the clock's ticking. Perhaps what they have been told seems to be a lie. Have reversals and revelations that upend everything they thought they knew. You definitely want to get your players out of their comfort zone. It's only jeopardy if the players feel it in the moment. I’ve seen cases where the referee has set up a terrifying end-of-season style showdown, then when they see that all the players survived it they thought they’d better underline how close a shave it was: ‘When you get home you realize you’ve all lost a level.’ Again, that’s just punishing them retrospectively for being lucky or resourceful. The referee can always take away hard-won gains, but good luck if you think the players’ reaction to that will be ‘this is a cruel and dangerous place’ rather than ‘you’re a dick’. Those are all just ways of punishing the players, though. This kind of jeopardy is good because there’s mystery, it has story repercussions (the PC has a whole range of favourite tactics based on fighting with Doomstream now they have to rethink everything), and as a bonus it doesn’t leave the player feeling hacked off.Ī referee might be tempted to emphasize the danger by whittling away at the player-characters: ‘For every hour you spend in the Petrified Forest you’re losing 100 experience points.’ Or permanent stat loss, or drain of charges in magic items. The PC: ‘Is it some sorcery that pervades this realm? Or is Doomstream frightened to face our foe?’ A better way: ‘You try to draw Doomstream, but the blade won’t leave the scabbard.’ In theory you’ve increased the danger, but all you’ll have achieved in practice is pissing off the player. Here’s the bad way to handle it: ‘Doomstream explodes into a thousand pieces.’ Let’s say one of them wields the magic sword Doomstream. You want them to feel like they’re in genuine danger. They’re approaching the archenemy’s sanctum the stakes are high. How do you create a sense of jeopardy without punishing the players?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |